Friday, April 28, 2017

Op-ed: A Witch Hunt by Any Other Name is Still a Witch Hunt

“I see no evidence or no data to support the notion that General Flynn complied with the law.” – House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz

And so it sadly seems that one of our own, as in House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), and one of
theirs, as in Democratic Ranking Committee Member Elijah Cummings
(D-Maryland), both believe that President Trump’s former National
Security Advisor retired Lt. General Michael Flynn might have broken
federal law after failing to disclose on his background security check
forms both his most recent trip to Russia and payments from Russia, as
well as payments from a Turkish businessman.

Apparently it means not a thing to either man that Flynn’s attorney,
Robert Kelner, said in regards to the Russia trip that Flynn did indeed
report his plans to travel to Russia, including his dining with Vladimir
Putin, to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)…the very agency Flynn
headed until 2014 when he was forced to retire from the military by
Obama…and that he had most certainly briefed officials at the agency
after his return.

And Kelner saying that during his briefings that Flynn “answered any questions that were posed by DIA concerning the trip,”
is in addition to DIA spokesman Jim Kudla saying that General Flynn
most assuredly did brief the agency in advance about his trip to Russia
and did so “in accordance with all standard security clearance procedures.”
In fact, a personal spokesman for the general has said that Flynn also
disclosed the Russian trip in question when he last came up for a
security clearance review in January 2016.

And yet even with all this Chairman Chaffetz continues to say that General Flynn could be criminally prosecuted because, “He
(General Flynn) was supposed to seek permission and receive permission
from both the secretary of state and the secretary of the Army prior to
traveling to Russia to not only accept that payment, but to engage in
that activity…No former military officer is allowed to accept payments
from a foreign government, and my guess is this is probably not the
first time this has happened.”

Guess
Jason Chaffetz and Elijah Cummings, for whatever reason, have
willingly…and possibly with malice…turned a deaf ear to the words of
Flynn’s lawyer, an official DIA spokesman, and others. And what makes
this especially grievous is Chaffetz’s saying that this is “not the first time this has happened”…a
harsh accusation with absolutely no proof to back those words up…words I
believe Chairman Chaffetz should not have said…words that down the line
could see Jason Chaffetz having to answer for.

And the specific words “He was supposed to”…nothing but
supposition at best although as a retired military officer now a private
citizen thanks to Obama’s firing, I really do not understand why
private citizen Michael Flynn needed anyone’s permission to travel
anywhere…even to Russia.

And exactly what Russian payments did said private citizen Michael
Flynn fail to disclose…apparently all this brouhaha is, first, about his
receiving about $33,000 back in 2015 from the ‘Russia Today’ television
network…a network which has been described by U.S. intelligence
officials…as in James Comey and his not quite trustworthy people…as a
propaganda front for Russia’s government…something also that has never
been proven.

“That money needs to be recovered,”
so says Jason Chaffetz, but seriously I want to know why money earned
has to returned and returned to who…Russia… really…I think not.

And second, coming into question is somewhere between $50,000 and
$100,000 Flynn received as part of his personal take-home in the
$530,000 that his company, Flynn Intel Group, garnered for consulting
work done for Inovo BV, a company owned by a Turkish businessman who
also happens to be a member of a committee overseen by Turkey’s finance
ministry.

So let me get this straight…now it seems that according to ‘certain’
political folks other ‘certain’ political folks cannot garner monies
from the businesses they own or from the services they rendered without
it coming into question. Something sure stinks here especially when it
is the likes of Elijah Cummings who says that General Flynn’s failure to
formally report this on paperwork requesting his security clearance
amounted to concealment of the money, which could, in his opinion, be
prosecuted as a felony. Now just look who’s calling the kettle black…the
very man who not only relishes in and is the poster boy for what is
known as ‘black privilege,’ but who in 2014 saw then House Oversight
Chairman Darrell Issa releasing a report implicating him in colluding
with the IRS and Lois Lerner against the nonpartisan voters rights group
‘True the Vote.’

Elijah
Cummings should be the last person to ever be appointed to a committee
that decides whether or not to bring charges against anyone.

And as the infamous tit-for-tat political game continues to be played
between the two parties, all the executive alphabet agencies and their
‘so-called’ watchdogs, inspector general overseers, and the different
oversight committees in Congress, it seems that failure to disclose is a
crime of the first degree for some but not for others, and it all
depends on whose side you came down on in the 2016 presidential
election. Or to put it bluntly and in perspective, the unrighteous
indignation over this relatively small dollars and cents amount not
having been disclosed by General Flynn is now first and foremost to some
yet the major infractions committed by some of those on the left still
go unpunished and worse…they are hushed up with help from the media so
that in the public venue they are simply made to ‘go away.’

But
what will not go away is the fact that Chaffetz and Cummings are still
planning to write to the Comptroller of the Army and the Department of
Defense’s Inspector General to determine whether retired, now private
citizen, Lt. General Michael Flynn broke the law, and whether the
government needs to pursue criminal charges simply because he did not
disclose these two payments. Personally, I am not sure Flynn actually
broke any law at least not to the degree this committee is trying to
claim he did. And these accusations are being lobbed at the same time as
Flynn’s company’s foreign contacts are being examined by other
congressional committees as part of investigations into Russia’s still
unproven meddling in the 2016 election, and still unproven ties between
Trump associates and the Kremlin.

And to see someone like Jason Chaffetz…an honorable man or at least I
always thought so…taking part in this predominately Democratic witch
hunt makes me wonder why he really has decided not to run again when up
for re-election, and why one of own seems to have turned on the one man,
Lt. General Michael Flynn, who actually understood then and continues
to understand now exactly who the enemy we face is…as in the entirety of
islam.

And
a witch hunt it is for where was the outrage and the bringing of
charges against Hillary Clinton who then candidate Donald Trump said
engaged in “criminality” for connections between Clinton
Foundation donors and her actions as Secretary of State. And where was
the outrage about said Foundation’s total lack of transparency and the
fact that some donors, especially from foreign governments not really
our friend, may have been trying to buy influence while she was
Secretary of State…as in her dubious ‘pay-for-play’ scandal. Sadly, that
too seems to have faded from public view no matter that some foreign
leaders have freely admitted that they did indeed buy influence for
their governments.

Also, where is the indictment and jail time for Hillary’s involvement
in and lies about Benghazi and the murders of four brave Americans. And
let’s not forget her infamous email scandal…a scandal whose components
surely broke federal laws…another scandal which came complete with
outrage and some committees investigating, but which again in the end
went nowhere.

And
seriously, why was Hillary not indicted and found guilty…why was she
not sent to jail…and why was she allowed to even run for president in
the first place when a criminal investigation was in progress. The
answer to those questions is simply because Hillary was a fellow liberal
Democrat who towed Obama’s islamic party line, and one who would not
raise the alarm about the true dangers from islam that we face.

Not quite like General Flynn now is it…a man whose rightful and very
vocal stance against islam, I believe, was what signaled both his
political death knell of sorts and his being the target of this current
witch hunt.

And dare we not forget Eric Holder and ‘Fast and Furious,’ along with
Loretta Lynch’s little tarmac meeting with a former president who gives
new meaning to the word ‘predator’…again outrage and investigations
that went nowhere as did the looking into the anything but Reverend Al
Sharpton who still owes millions in back taxes and who also has not been
arrested or served any jail time.
‘Black privilege’ coming into play again I suppose.

So
where does all this lead us…it leads us to the fact that ‘selective
enforcement’ is once again the order of the day as it is again being
used against a man whose political views the Democrats do not like
(especially since he is one of their own party affiliation wise), and
now adding his voice to that is one of our own.

And herein lies the quandary…why is House Oversight Chairman Jason
Chaffetz doing what he is doing, and is it tied into his not running for
re-election when his House seat next comes up? And could some of his
reasoning, if you will, be tied into the fact that he, like General
McMaster, is either being mislead about the enemy we face or is it that
he truly buys into the propaganda of his religious beliefs for lest we
forget that Jason Chaffetz is a practicing Mormon.

Notice that while Chairman Chaffetz supports President Trump’s
keeping his campaign promises, he concludes his statement with these
words, “… People that have a green card supposedly already have been vetted, so there needs to be some further clarification.” But
what Jason Chaffetz forgets is that people can change and muslims
simply cannot be trusted… remember taqiyya…so a past vetting might not
expose their current views on let us say terrorism and jihad, let alone
on the sharia.

So,
is Chairman Jason Chaffetz going ‘soft’ on islam like General
McMaster…a man who still separates the sum of the terrorists from the
whole…I do not know… but I do know that when one is dedicated to their
religion they tend to hold said religion’s core beliefs. And where do
Mormons stand on islam…this is the statement the Mormon hierarchy issued
after President Trump’s first attempt at a temporary ban, “The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned about the
temporal and spiritual welfare of all of God’s children across the
earth, with special concern for those who are fleeing physical violence,
war and religious persecution. The Church urges all people and
governments to cooperate fully in seeking the best solutions to meet
human needs and relieve suffering.”

Sounds like kumbaya left dribble now doesn’t it.

Here is the Mormon stance on islam in general, as written by Mormon
scholars Brian M. Hauglid and Kent P. Jackson, in their book ‘What Every
Latter-day Saint Should Know about Islam,’ in Religious Educator 4, no.
2 (2003): 9–23.

“We
can learn much from our Muslim brothers and sisters. Islam has created a
society in which modesty is valued, in which divorce and premarital
and extramarital sexual relations are much less common than in our
culture, and in which the strength of immediate and extended families
can be an example even to Latter-day Saints. Muslims develop strong
communities with interactive neighborhoods of people who care for each
other and watch out for the interests of both neighbors and strangers.
Their culture teaches the virtues of generosity and hospitality.”

What I want to know is this utter nonsense what Jason Chaffetz
believes down deep… is this what is driving his stance against the one
man who actually ‘got it’ in regards to islam being our enemy or can it
be that he wants to make an example of Flynn to show that we will call
out our own if need be…and in the case of Lt. General Michael Flynn I do
not think it needs to be because if he was still National Security
Advisor I do not believe we would be in the situation we find ourselves
in today.

But maybe we would…who knows…but all I do know for sure is that a
true patriot is now the subject of a witch hunt and that one of our own
is helping to lead the charge, and that truly does not sit well with
me…how dear reader does it sit with you?

Today, Friday, April 28th from 7 to 9pm on American Political
Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss the witch hunt
against General Flynn, Craig takes the 2017 grads to school, and the week's
important news.